1. One rainy day, when he could not go out of doors, George thought that he would play school. Yet there was no one to play with him but his pet cat, and she was not a very
good scholar. So he thought that he would try to learn something from her.
2. “Puss! puss!” he said, “come and sit in this chair. You may be the teacher, and I will be your scholar. And I want you to tell me some things that I would like to know.
3. “I want to know why your paws are so soft that you make no noise when you run. Why is it that your toes have such long, sharp claws in them?
4. “I want to know how and why you hide your sharp claws in your soft paws. Then you may tell me how you can push out your claws when you run up a tree, or when you catch a mouse, and how you pull them back again.
5. “Why can you run up to the very top of a tree, when a dog can not go up at all?
6. “One day I saw a big dog run after you and bark at you. He was in fun, and did not mean to hurt you. But you did not know that, and so you ran up a tree, and sat on a high branch, far out of his reach.
7. “The dog did not try to get up the tree, and all he could do was to stand and bark at you. After a time he went away, and then you came down and ran into the house. '
8. “If the dog could climb the tree he could not sit on the branch as you can, and he would not know how to get down.
9. “How is it that you can do so much that the dog can not do? Come, puss, tell me all about yourself.”
NEW WORDS.
rainy sharp claws push puss pull learn paws mean chair hide scholar
1. The cat began to purr softly, and George thought that she was going to speak; so he sat very still, as all good scholars do, and waited.
2. He was tired and sleepy, and yet he wanted very much to hear what the cat would say. In a little while she began:
3. “I will first tell you how I caught a mouse not long ago. One day I heard your mother say that the mice ate all her bread, _ and that she did not know what to do with them. So I made up my mind to catch the mice. .
4. “When the sim had gone down and it was dark, I hid myself behind a big box. Soon I heard a noise, and I knew that a mouse was at work. I heard its teeth going chip, chip, chip, as it tried to make a hole through the door.
5. “So I put one foot down softly, and then the other foot, and crept towards it. If my paws had not been so soft it would have heard me and run into its hole.
6. “Just as I was going to spring, it saw me and tried to get away. But I was too quick for it ; I jumped after it, and caught it just as it was running into its hole. If my claws had not been so long and sharp I could not have held it.
7. “I must tell you something more about my claws. They grow very fast, and if I did not rub them down they would soon be so long that I could not use them.
8. “So, when I feel that they are too long, I find a nice tree with hard bark, and I scratch it until my claws are shorter and very sharp.
9. “You said that you wanted to know why I can run up trees when the dog can not. I can do so because my claws are made for climbing. The dog was made to stay on the ground, and so his claws do not help him to climb.”
10. Just then Puss saw a mouse on the window sill
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